Five rescued from rebels

The breakthrough came after Golaghat and Karbi Anglong police launched a massive manhunt following the incident.

The five persons — identified as Mithun Das, Sunny Das, Boloram Das, Kulendra Singh and Dharmendra Singh — were abducted at gunpoint by a 10 to 12-member group of the KPLT from an IBP petrol pump in the Geleki area on National Highway 37 near Kaziranga National Park to some undisclosed location along the hill range.

The militants first took three employees of the petrol pump as hostage and abducted two other persons from a truck parked inside the petrol pump.

Sources said the abductors came on foot and they were heavily armed with guns and sharp weapons.

“We picked up suspected cadres of the outfit and working on the information derived from them after due interrogation we rescued all the five people safely and unharmed at 3 this afternoon from the Dolamora area,” said Shiladitya Chetia, superintendent of police, Golaghat, while talking to The Telegraph.

B.K. Chetry, in-charge of Kohora police outpost said the hostages were rescued from deep inside the Karbi mountain range. However, the militants escaped and the combing operation is still going on to catch them.

In June, three persons were kidnapped by the KPLT from the same area and the militant group has been threatening locals with demands of extortion for a long time.

The KPLT, earlier known as the anti-talks faction of the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) was formed on January 8, 2011. It is a breakaway faction of the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF), which laid down arms on February 11, 2010.